Spendulus: An Impending Democrat Disaster?

At this point in time, it's difficult to say whether the Democrat spending orgy will be a disaster for Democrats or whether Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe is simply engaging in wishful thinking while whistling past the graveyard. After all, some of these billions are sure to find their way into groups that will be campaigning against Republicans (hello, ACORN!).

IT'S too late to fix any thing. It's over.

There is little hope to repair the multibillion-dollar stimulus plan now - but that could actually mean good news for Republicans. This could be the bill that puts the GOP back in power.

Once Americans realize that this is the largest spending authorization in the history of the country and that the bill is stuffed with waste and less than 7 percent real economic stimulation, they will surely wake up.

Americans will see that there are two parties - the tax-and-spend party and a party of fiscal responsibility.

The bad news is that my kids are going to have to pay for it.

The $780 billion deal that emerged from backroom talks among Democrats and Republicans is bloated with millions of dollars for stupid projects like habitat restoration, trail improvements, and coupons for digital TV transition.

It is clear that infrastructure investment, along with defense spending and tax cuts, has a greater stimulative impact on the economy than anything else the government can do. But the bill contains very little in the way of this.

I pushed for measures to increase highway investment by $5.5 billion, and to increase defense procurement spending by $5.3 billion to manufacture or acquire vehicles, equipment, ammunition, and materials required to reconstitute military units. And I sought to slash proposed wasteful, frivolous projects. Democrats fought these efforts.

All the speeches and amendments on Capitol Hill were for show and cover, because everyone knew we would have a couple of Republicans - Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) - who would cave in the bipartisan negotiations this week.

I just was hoping we as a party would have the discipline and the courage to stop this from happening, and we failed.

The stimulus bill won't change by the time the full Senate votes on it tomorrow afternoon. And when it later goes to a bipartisan conference committee sure to be stacked with Democrats, the plan will likely become a victim of more greed.

Only then will the GOP have a chance to convince Specter and Collins to come to their senses - to come back to a moderate-to-conservative position.

Good luck with that, Senator.

By the time the midterms come around in 21 months, this spendulus scam may be long forgotten, buried in a coming avalanche of far left legislation that will simply add many more billions to the public tab. If by some miracle the economy rebounds even slightly, you can be sure Obama's PR team from the networks will be gushing how The One rescued us from fiscal oblivion. Bank on it.